Planning a Trip to Java

Jakarta is my hometown, and as a capital city of vast Indonesia, it's just not for the faint-hearted. It might be the most modern city in the country, and also the most polluted with the most depressingly long traffic jams, but it's also the most vibrant with ideas and attitudes of its 12 million inhabitants coming from elsewhere in the archipelago country and worldwide. Dodging traffic and enjoying radio banters while sitting in traffic are favorite sports, and eating is just as much fun as finding inexpensive gems be it a pair of shoes, a batik shirt, a gadget, or a piece of furniture in your shopping sprees. Just by being there surviving the daily physical abuse the traffic posed is a perfect excuse to be pampered - and Jakarta boasted the best hair/body salons and spas offering full-body, half-day treatment for about $40! Try the 'cream bath' if you don't have that much time... Banks and money changers are ubiquitous - you can buy pre-paid cellphones, and taxicabs are the best way to go around - or if you are indeed a braveheart, you can try the 'ojek' or motorcycles for hire, or the bajaj, the motorized tuktuks.

Bayah is a very beautiful place...travel is best by land...there's no real accomodation, but you may stay at the villager's house... The beach is still untouched...but beware of the waves, at some times it can be very dangerous to go out swimming...

This city is more well-known as Solo city. It is an historic place. We can still visit the castle, very crowded though.
There is one of the best "Gudeg" in country, made by "Adem Ayem" restaurant. Must try! "Gudeg" is one of Indonesian traditional food from Yogyakarta. It contains rice, chicken, "cecek," cooked young jackfruit, coconut milk paste. 
There is one complex somewhere in this city (sorry I'm very bad in remembering direction when I'm not driving) that has a lot of "Nasi Liwet." OMG! It's damn nice! If I search my memory correctly, the seller is "Bu Lemu" (I'm not sure about this). It's another "must try." =)
There's also one delicious "Serabi" place. It's very hard to find, you need to ask many times to get there, but many people know it since it is very famous. "Serabi" is another Indonesian traditional cakes. It looks like an UFO for me.
Enjoy your trip =)

The steaming cone of Bromo rises from the Tengger caldera, set in a sea of ashen, volcanic sand. Nearby is Gunung Semeru (3,676m), Java's highest peak and one of it's most active volcanoes.
Whilst watching the sunrise ove Bromo, Semeru welcomed the new dawn with a small puff of volcanic smoke as if to herald the beginning of a new day and to remind us who is in charge here.
I was first inspired to travel to Bromo by my Virtual Tourist friends from the Philippines, Isa and Monina. They were accompanied to Bromo by a friendly local, Mohamad Ikhsan. After many emails between Ikhsan and myself he agreed to take me to Bromo as well as it is one of his favourite places.
I met up with Ikhsan in Malang, where he now lives and works, and from there we ventured by road to Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park. We stayed overnight at the Hotel Bromo Permai I, which is possibly the best hotel in the centre of Cemara Lawang. The rooms are comfortable but certainly not plush.
Our adventure to Bromo started with a 3am get up to travel by jeep over a narrow, winding and pot holed road,to the top of Gunung Penanjakan. After a brief walk from the carpark to the viewing platform you wait with like-minded travellers to watch the sunrise over the Tengger caldera.
After countless photo opportunities the jeeps take you back down the mountain and across the geologically unstable Sea of Sand toa carpark near the base of Bromo.
From the carpark you can either walk or ride by horse across the Sea of Sand to the base of Bromo where you can start to climb up the 253 steps to the top of Bromo.
It was fairly light by the time we got there so we enjoyed fantastic views down into the smoking crater of Bromo.

Read more: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/827ac/126153/4/#ixzz1DnClxTp0

Jakarta (J-town) The sumpek (crowded) city ever (from my point a view of course) even sumpek this city offer lots of fun and variation of view. For you who like a photography, you can get lots of funtastic lunatic outrages view here in J-town. Here the placed that I mostly visit for hunting a Fatahilah Museum, Sunda Kelapa Harbour, Monument of Monas, Bunderan HI, Catedral Catholic Church, Gold Dome Mosque, Ragunan Zoo, Sudirman Street, Suropaty Park, Indonesian Miniatur Park (Taman Mini Indonesia Indah) , and lots of Monument building. For you who like take a fashion picture just go to mall or Kemang Street or you go to the office area in sudirman-thamrin or kuningan you will get a perfect street fashion ever... ;b or you like take some artistic picture like me visit the traditional market like Senen or Kramat Jati. Outrages picture you can have it in Taman Lawang, Jatinegara, Bantar Gebang or Ciliwung and so on. "Where should I stay then?" dont worry, if you rich enough J-town have a lotta of 5 star hotel like Ritz, Shangrila, Mariott, or Four Seassons. Oh, low budget... thousands of hotel for the low budget tourist ;) Party goers? perfect J-town have lot of place for party Embassy, Centro, Vertigo, Bliss sometimes we have Sundaze in Pantai Marina Ancol and other of cool party. Just wanna hangout not partying, Kemang is the perfect place... they have food festival sometimes garage sale. "What should I bring?" MONEY... Did the locals were nice? some of them yeah, some of them no... if you lost in direction just find a police station go there and ask. For women Travelers, use guide from your hotel or trusted travel agent its better rather than you have travel alone ;) "Am hungry!!" we have thousand of restorant and cafe, you can find it in Mall or Hotel, from europe food to asian food, indonesia food in everywhere, love spicy got to Rumah Makan Padang or Daeng Tata in casablanca for the Makasar taste uuuuhhhmm yummy... Well... bon voyage... ;) avoid trouble and keep smiling

Visiter mon blog sur l'Indonésie et la photographie; Vous y trouverez des astuces mais aussi des conseils aux voyageurs. En français et en bahasa indonesia
http://fouchardphotographe.travelblog.fr
Philippe FOUCHARD
fouchardphotographe@yahoo.fr

The steaming cone of Bromo rises from the Tengger caldera, set in a sea of ashen, volcanic sand. Nearby is Gunung Semeru (3,676m), Java's highest peak and one of it's most active volcanoes.
Whilst watching the sunrise ove Bromo, Semeru welcomed the new dawn with a small puff of volcanic smoke as if to herald the beginning of a new day and to remind us who is in charge here.
I was first inspired to travel to Bromo by my Virtual Tourist friends from the Philippines, Isa and Monina. They were accompanied to Bromo by a friendly local, Mohamad Ikhsan. After many emails between Ikhsan and myself he agreed to take me to Bromo as well as it is one of his favourite places.
I met up with Ikhsan in Malang, where he now lives and works, and from there we ventured by road to Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park. We stayed overnight at the Hotel Bromo Permai I, which is possibly the best hotel in the centre of Cemara Lawang. The rooms are comfortable but certainly not plush.
Our adventure to Bromo started with a 3am get up to travel by jeep over a narrow, winding and pot holed road,to the top of Gunung Penanjakan. After a brief walk from the carpark to the viewing platform you wait with like-minded travellers to watch the sunrise over the Tengger caldera.
After countless photo opportunities the jeeps take you back down the mountain and across the geologically unstable Sea of Sand toa carpark near the base of Bromo.
From the carpark you can either walk or ride by horse across the Sea of Sand to the base of Bromo where you can start to climb up the 253 steps to the top of Bromo.
It was fairly light by the time we got there so we enjoyed fantastic views down into the smoking crater of Bromo.

Read more: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/827ac/126153/4/#ixzz1DnClxTp0

If you want to know about Indonesian industrialized area, you should go to Bekasi in West Java. There you can see the real Indonesian way of life. You can see how they work, how they deal with traffic jam, etc.

If you go to Anyer, please don't wear any green colored clothes. That's what we Indonesian believe.

Well what can I say. Was an interesting place didn't really go the narrow streets etc. Was quite a dirty place. However if anyone ever heads that way the tours were excellent especially the Kintamani volcano Tour and the Monkey Forest and Temples Tour. Be wary if offered a friendship bracelet or the like as my friend and I were ripped off $280AUD each the first day we were there if you do find yourself in this situation and not knowing the value of their Money all you need to do is say the word police and they back right off. Great weather, really hot. We stayed in Kuta at cheap accommodation but if you go there i would recommend going for something around the 3.5 - 4 star mark as the accommodation we had was only 2.5 star and the sheets were washed daily but they were kinda brown and blood on the walls of our unit. Kuta Beach was lovely but they have a lot of people selling stuff that tend to hound you. lol. The shopping absolutely amazing and very cheap. We were offered drugs by some guys .............no we didn't take them neither of us were into that but however if you are game to purchase off of them do be warned that as soon as you buy it they go to cops and report you then you have the balinese police on your back. Overall was a great place especially the tours, kids ride moped thingees to school and the balinese drive crazy.........yes there were times we thought we weren't goin to make it back to NZ. Was a real eye opener for us. These people work so hard for so little.

your passport needs to have more than 6 months left until the expiary date otherwise they wont let you into the country.
however all personell do take bribes.

Ngadisari is a small town in Probolinggo regency, East Java which also the closest town to Mt Bromo.

It also serve as a base camp for travelers willing to climb up to Mt Bromo.

Even it's not as popular as Cemorolawang village as a base camp, actually Cemorolawang village is located under Ngadisari sub-district.

Wonosari is located on Lawang town, East Java. It's wellknown for its beautiful landscape of tea plantation and serve as a tourist attraction as well.

In the beginning, more than 600 hectares of forest was cleared and planted with tea bushes. That was early last century, and a few of the original trees are still alive until now.

During first president Sukarno’s purge of the Dutch in the 1950s the plantation was one of the many foreign businesses confiscated and nationalized.

Wonosari is already packed with constructive and recreational activities. On the fun side there’s a big warm-water pool, mini zoo, playground, tennis courts and many other pastimes. For those who hate being out of the city there’s a karaoke lounge.

Beside sort of facilities, Wonosari tea plantation also provide tea plantation guided tour for visitors with certain interest to tea plantation.

In the end it’s a great place to relax and enjoy the Javanese countryside, feel the cool and watch thousands of swiftlets darting across the tea bushes, feeding on insects.

Sukabumi is a city and regency in the highlands of West Java, Indonesia, about 80 km (50 miles) south of the national capital, Jakarta.

At an altitude of approximately 600 meters (2000 feet), the city is a minor hill station resort, with a cooler climate than the surrounding lowlands. Sukabumi is also a destination for whitewater rafting. Rubber production is a major industry in the area.

In Dutch colonial times, Sukabumi was the site of the colonial police academy.